Of potential interest to obesity researchers:

SAN FRANCISCO, March 5 - Teenagers who don't manage their anger, either by
suppressing feelings, or the other extreme of losing one's temper, are at
higher risk for weight gain than those who do, researchers said today at the
American Heart Association's 44th annual Conference on Cardiovascular
Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.
"Problems expressing anger can translate into eating disorders and increased
weight, which leads to a high risk of cardiovascular disease at a young
age," said William H. Mueller, Ph.D., lead author of the study and professor
of behavioral science at the University of Texas Health Science Center at
Houston, School of Public Health (...).

"Unhealthy ways of expressing anger are associated with overweight. 'Anger
control' is a healthy way of expressing anger. You don't take things
personally.

"Overweight kids have poor health behaviors, including anger expression,
which may lead to increased weight, especially in girls," he said.

"These kids develop unhealthy ways of dealing with their emotions. They tend
to isolate themselves, watch TV or read rather than connecting with their
friends."

Children with high "anger control" scores acknowledge their feelings of
anger, but are able to express those feelings appropriately. These children
tend to have normal weights.

"It is not just 'anger in' or 'anger out,'" Mueller said. "We're suggesting
that it is important to look at the emotional health of kids. It's beyond
just diet and exercise. We need to look at the broader sociological picture.
If they feel good about resolving interpersonal stress and learn to decrease
conflict, these skills will spill over into their general lifestyle."

Full text:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/aha-pca022404.php

It appears that the question of the cultural and socio-economic origin of
stress remains to be addressed.

And my 2 (euro)cents on the topic of costs of health vs unhealthy foo: In
most Eastern European countries locally grown fruit and vegetables have been
extremely cheap while sugar-, fat- and MSG-loaded processed food has been
very expensive. Yet the latter contributed to obesity epidemic, despite
being burden to family budgets. It was advertising, cultural stereotypes
and, perhaps, an addictive nature of such products that should be blamed.
Now, with "westernization", canned junk food imported form another continent
is competing in terms of price with local healthy produce. Once ridiculed
beets or buckwheat will soon become the yuppie privilege and the poorest
will forget how to make sauerkraut just like they forgot the art of
bread-making; they will be left with supermarket cereals and powdered soups.

Jaroslaw Wechowski, M.D.
Warsaw School of Economics
Poland

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